Daily Archives: March 24, 2023
Point Pleasant loses a fishing industry icon; Oscar John Stensland
On March 19 th , Oscar John Stensland passed away at age 90 after battling recent health issues. John was a former Commercial fisherman who was part owner of the Trawler Snow White in the nineteen sixties and early Seventies, until he decided to work with his late father, Oscar [senior] who had founded the Fisherman’s Supply Company back in 1948. Fisherman’s Supply was a crucial component of the development of the commercial fishing industry in the Ocean and Monmouth County
areas as the local fleet rapidly developed during the last century, and it provided Fishermen with a local store to purchase gear such as rope, twine, wire, hardware, tackles, blocks, etc. Without Fisherman’s Supply Company, fishermen were forced to travel to Rhode Island or New Bedford for fishing gear until Cape May started becoming major industry suppliers during the Seventies. >click to continue< 17:22
Banff and Buchan MP urges rethink of Highly Protected Marine Area plans
David Duguid MP has written to Scottish Government minister Mairi Gougeon MSP urging her to rethink proposals for Highly Protected Marine Areas following concerns that they restrict twenty times as much as the UK Government’s plans for English waters. In his letter to the rural affairs secretary, Mr Duguid has hit out at the impact the proposals will have on Scotland’s fishing fleet and has asked why HPMAs in Scottish waters are being implemented on an immediately permanent basis and not on a trial/pilot period like the rest of the United Kingdom. >click to continue< 14:58
Angry inshore harvesters from fishing area 3L demand changes to allow for quota increases
A week of angry protests by inshore crab harvesters from eastern Newfoundland cooled slightly Friday following the promise by the federal fisheries minister of a review of their concerns, and a meeting on Monday between union and federal fisheries officials. Dozens of harvesters were summoned to a hotel in St. John’s on Friday morning by their union for an update on efforts to modify or rip up a management strategy that harvesters say is restricting their chances of higher quotas, and has the potential to drive many of them out of business as markets shrink following a banner year in 2022. There was talk of once again staging a protest, and at one point fisheries union president Greg Pretty donned his jacket and told protestors to follow him to DFO’s White Hills location. “Let’s go. Let’s get out,” Pretty said. >click to read< 13:51
Vancouver Island military search and rescue crews train with U.S. Coast Guard
Crews from 19 Wing Comox are back on the ground after attending a week of specialized training in the United States, learning special techniques to get in and out of extreme ocean waves. “It was awesome to be able to train in a more realistic environment, out of our normal rules,” said Master-Cpl. Carl Mozienko of Comox’s 442 Transport and Rescue Squadron. Three pilots, two flight engineers and three search and rescue technicians, spent five days training with members of the U.S. Coast Guard down in Astoria, Oregon, near the mouth of the Columbia River. The location was chosen because of its rough seas, according to Brad Pigage, a chief aviation survival technician for the Advanced Helicopter Rescue School. Photos, >click to read< 12:47
Visit us at The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association Annual Weekend & Industry Trade Show
The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association Annual Weekend & Industry Trade Show will be held March 23-26 , 2023 at the Resort and conference Center at Hyannis, 35 Schudder Ave., Hyannis, MA 02601 Details. >click to read< 11:27
Nova Scotia halibut boat fined $5,000 for fishing inside Gully Marine Protected Area
A Nova Scotia fishing captain has pleaded guilty to fishing inside the Gully Marine Protected Area near Sable Island. It’s the first conviction in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Maritimes region for unauthorised fishing inside a marine protected area. Captain Phillip Chetwynd was fined $5,000 in Port Hawkesbury provincial court this week for non-compliance with licence conditions under the Fisheries Act. Images taken by a DFO surveillance plane show the captain at the rail hauling the tail end of the long line with crewmen dressing the catch on board. >click to read< 09:30
‘Significant progress’ made with L’Ecume II investigation
More than 400 lines of enquiry have been recorded since the start of the investigation – Operation Nectar – with more than 300 now complete. The L’Ecume II fishing trawler sank on Thursday 8 December following a collision with Condor’s Commodore Goodwill freight ship off Jersey’s west coast. In a statement, the force said: ‘Significant progress is being made with the investigation and most of the evidential opportunities have now been completed.’ Family liaison officers continue to support the families of Mr Michieli, Mr Baligat, and Mr Simyunn in Jersey and the Philippines. The wreck of L’Ecume II is due to be raised once the specialist equipment needed to do so has been acquired. It will be held on land as part of the police investigation at a secure location, where a forensic examination will take place to recover evidence and record the damage. >click to read< 08:51
One shrimp stock off Labrador doing well but missed surveys means no new data for two other fishing zones
This news likely won’t come as a great surprise to most in Atlantic Canada’s shrimp fishing industry: scientists at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) can’t provide a full assessment on two northern shrimp stocks on Canada’s east coast this year because they don’t have new data. In February DFO confirmed offshore trawl surveys in shrimp fishing areas (SFA) 5 and 6 could not be completed because a research ship was out of commission. In a technical briefing with media earlier Thursday, March 23, stock assessment biologist Nicolas LeCorre provided information mainly on SFA 4, the one zone where offshore trawl surveys were completed. >click to read< 08:04
